Qatar dazzled by enhanced mobile TV

23 Channels Now Available Direct to Your Mobile;
Simple Pricing and Unlimited Access Offers New Type of TV

Qtel today unveiled new enhancements to their Mozaic Mobile TV service, bringing an amazing choice of channels from two packages, along with simple subscription.

Users will be able to subscribe easily by sending an SMS for the package of their choice. International and Arabic packages will be available, giving access to up to 23 channels, including news, sports, cultural, entertainment and children’s television, streamed direct to mobile phones.

To add to the benefits, viewers can sign-up for unlimited access for either 24-hours or a full month, depending on the package they chose – all of which come at highly competitive prices.

In all, the service is one of the most advanced – and most exciting – ever made available for Mobile TV in the region. It will even have the distinction of being the first mobile service in the Middle East to carry the world-famous ESPN sports channel.

Adel Al Mutawa, Executive Director, Group Communications said: “The enhanced Mozaic Mobile TV service offers customers unlimited television, any-time and anywhere. We’ve designed the service so that customers can have immediate access to major sporting and cultural events with one simple SMS, and also built in a wide range of channels to suit all ages and all interests.”

The choice of International and Arabic channels has been selected to suit young people, sports fans, business executives and families across Qatar. In addition, the channel packages offer a range of options to enable people to watch TV how and when they want to.

A daily subscription is available for either all International or all Arabic channels for as little as QR5 per day, with unlimited access. Qtel is confident that this pricing structure will prove particularly attractive for people who want to follow a specific news story, track breaking developments on the stock market, or even tune in to major Qatar sporting events from their mobile phone.

Alternatively, subscribers can choose the International or Arabic package for a month, for only QR49, or both International and Arabic packages accessing all 23 channels for just QR89 per month.

“Today’s launch of the enhanced Mozaic Mobile TV Service builds on our heritage as the pioneer of mobile TV in the Gulf region to deliver our most exciting service to date,” added Al Mutawa.

Mobile TV was first introduced during the Doha Asian Games 2006, using state-of-the-art DVB-H technology. In 2008, Qtel launched a full service providing four channels without the standard ‘one-time access’ restrictions of many comparable offerings.

A recent global study by Ericsson and CNN suggested that, globally, mobile TV is the number one application users want on their phone, with 34 percent of respondents ranking TV as the most in-demand application and almost half (44 percent) of the respondents poised to adopt mobile TV in the next two years.